Set in Austin, Texas—the capitol of the newly minted Lone Star state— The Midnight Assassin recounts a series of eight ghastly murders that were committed during the years 1884 and 1885. More like annihilations, these butcheries incited panic and paranoia in this frontier town of 17,000 people, and undermined municipal efforts to make Austin a mecca of prosperity and modernism.

The killer was never caught, although tantalizing clues point to several potential suspects. Some observers believe that the killer fled Texas, traveled to London, and recreated himself into the legendary Whitechapel killer famously known as “Jack the Ripper.”

Prof. Gershman mentions a PBS TV documentary that identified the killer as 19-year old Nathan Elgin, who was allegedly apprehended at a crime scene, whose involvement was supported by additional circumstantial evidence, and after whose death these killings stopped. Yet, Hollandsworth discounts this possibility in his book leaving readers with a well-written dramatic story of one of the oldest (and almost forgotten) murder mysteries in the history of America.